Terry Willers

(1935, UK - 9 November 2011, Ireland)

Tom Poes - De grootdoener

Terry Willers was an English comics artist, who nevertheless lived and worked in Ireland for most of his life. He worked on many newspaper comics, of which his work for the Dutch comics artist Marten Toonder is the most notable.

Terry Willers was born in London in 1935. His work has appeared in papers and magazines like The Farmers Journal, Sunday Independent, Evening Herald and The Wicklow People, and on television shows like Hall's Pictorial Weekly and The Mike Murphy Show. He began his career at the age of 15, drawing for a Disney studio in London. Prior to coming to Ireland, Willers worked on newspaper strips for 5 European countries, including productions by the Dutch Toonder studios in the 1960s.

Tom Poes

After having worked on 'Panda', he succeeded Dick Matena as the artist of the 'Tom Poes' daily strip in 1963. He added a slapstick element to the strips, and intensified the absurdism in the artwork. He drew 'Tom Poes' for five episodes but quit in 1965 because he couldn't keep up with the intense deadlines. He then went to work on the 'Kappie' strip. In 1968, he returned to 'Tom Poes', when he did a balloon story for the Dutch Disney comics magazine Donald Duck. In the 1990s, Willers contributed to Irish comics anthology The Yellow Press, and he drew a strip called 'Minder Bird' for The Beano in 1995. He lived and worked in the village of Rathdrum, Ireland, where he was the chairman and co-founder of the local Guinness International Cartoon Festival.